Question about Ebay company using my pictures to sell body kits!

[pw_cc_runner]

The other day I was alerted that a company on Ebay is using a picture of my car that they copied off of Cardomain to sell Sensei kits. The did not respond to my emails so I called and the guy was a complete jerk about it. Has anyone else encountered this? I tried the BBB but I doubt there will be any way to track down an online company. Ebay seems less than helpful at this point... I know there are a few photographers on here, what is your stance? Am I wrong for making a complaint? Anyone have any advice or help?

If you care to see what Probetalk said...
http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread.php?p=1923267814#post1923267814

[70 cutlass 442]

jw whats the big deal? yeah maybe the professional thing to do would be to ask you but is it really that big of a deal?

[Nix]

anything found on the net is fair game man. we see it all the time peoples pics and info used for others and such. take it as a compliment.

[SmokinRAM114]

ur not ford, whats the problem? if u put pics on a pubic site like cardomain there far game the way i look at it.. how many people u think have a picture of ur car saved on there computer or even as there background? i really dont understand y ur so mad?? id be like fricken cool!

[pw_cc_runner]

anything found on the net is fair game man. we see it all the time peoples pics and info used for others and such. take it as a compliment.

actually you're wrong, its not fair game. Take a look at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

I guess I pose the question how would you feel if someone else was making money off your hard work?

EDIT -> Those people aren't profiting off having those pictures on their PC. And pictures on Cardomain ARE NOT fair game... Cardomain reserves the right to use them as part of the terms of service but that is not extended to the entire internet.

[GRAMPS SS]

^^^^^^^he is right....

[Nix]

So what is your problem then? Why would one get so angry and bent out of shape over this?:confused Dude its a compliment, take it as just that. You learn something new everyday, I always thought its fair game cuz I see it day in and day out happening. File a complaint then and good luck.

[Cryptic]

you took the photo, you own it.

Commercial Use is Rarely Fair Use
What about "Fair Use"?
If your use of copyrighted work is for:
- teaching, scholarship or research
- criticism or comment on a copyrighted work
- news reporting

Your use of copyrighted material may be considered fair use. This will depend in addition upon on how much of a copyrighted work you use, how important that part of the work is to the whole, and the effect of your use upon the value or potential value of the copyrighted work.It is best to get a legal opinion. (See 17 U.S.C.A. § 107).


Since October 31, 1988, works no longer need a copyright notice to have copyright protection. This means any image you find on a web page may be copyrighted. The traditional notice, such as "Copyright 1989 XZV Co." or " ©1989 XZV Co." is no longer required. Most web site content has been created since 1988, so beware

[lordairgtar]

I couldn't believe that guy said your car wasn't top notch, I am familiar with your Probe and I say it is....but I digress, It is true you do in fact own the car and it's images you created of it, even more so because of your artistry and design which makes it unique. I am no attorney (I'm just an artist hack) but I would suggest you contact an attorney on this just for some advice. They usually do first consultations for nothing. I know you being a student doesn't leave you with much money to hire lawyers.

[GRAMPS SS]

andy...i still have all my work copyrighted.even though after i click the shutter...the image is copyrighted........fair use or not....i shot it ..i own it....i have gone after people for taking my proofs from there weddings and copying them....it states right on the back...copyrighted paper and then has MIRROR IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHY and the date on the back....there is more to the copy right laws then what you have posted.....just my imput...flame away

[limpimpg]

. unless you have all right reserved on it big or small. sorry nothing you can do. buddy had his car pictures sold to spike tv and went to sue told by lawyers sorry no go so guess what now all his cars have it on there.looks @ any race car its on there where you won't notice.

[badass88gt]

Is he linking right from your site? If so, Change the pictures to gay porn pics.

[Yooformula]

I wonder if the RIAA can get in on this....shit they got their grimy hands in other stuff why not. same principle isnt it?

[Reverend Cooper]

vortech uses my car to sell their stuff,Marv at c&m uses my car on his site,brenspeed has my car on their site,take it for what it is a compliment. Marv is the only one that asked for permission which honestly i wouldnt have cared about that at all. unless there is a way you can prove they have gained something from using your car in their ad i really dont know how you can sue them. but i'm not a lawyer either

[Yooformula]

i think you can file a complaint with ebay.its crap if they are using his car without his permission to SELL items. They never sold him the body kit so they shouldnt have any reason to use his car. If the manufacturer was using his car pics, then I would say otherwise but its a different company whoring his car pics to make some $$.

[Reverend Cooper]

yeah,but you would need to prove that pix is why they are selling x amount of kits or some shit i would think,just using it as am example to show what the kit looks like on a car doesnt seem to me enough to substantiate it,but again im no lawyer

[Boost21]

i would want a cut of the profit :)

[Memphis]

i think you can file a complaint with ebay.its crap if they are using his car without his permission to SELL items. They never sold him the body kit so they shouldnt have any reason to use his car. If the manufacturer was using his car pics, then I would say otherwise but its a different company whoring his car pics to make some $$.

You can surely file a complaint with ebay and they will pull any add you tell them is using your picture without your permission. I bought a car once on ebay and pulled the motor, resold the body. I used the pics from the original ad which were crappy hard to see night shots (but its all I had cause the car was buried in snow) and the original seller filed a complaint with ebay. They pulled my auction and said those were copyrighted pcs of that user and that if I used them again, I could be punishable by law. By all means, they are profiting by your hard work without permission, have at it. Its not a compliment when its for profit.

[pw_cc_runner]

I couldn't believe that guy said your car wasn't top notch, I am familiar with your Probe and I say it is....but I digress

I didn't go after that guy because opinions are opinions I wont change what he thinks. It is ridiculous however to suggest that because my car has a 2.0 in it and not a 2.5 that it diminishes the quality of my car.

Just so that everyone knows, the proper complaints have been filed with both ebay and the cite he used to host the images. We'll see what happens...

[PB86MCSS]

I agree with the above...if someone is trying to make a buck and using your car and picture, go after them if you feel its worth it or neccessary. It may be a compliment but it doesn't make it right. Its like a star athlete being ok with some crappy company using their face for an advertisement. I had someone use a picture of my SS on e-bay a couple years back to sell a Monte that wasn't even an SS. He didn't claim it was the car for sale but it was similar or some crap. Sure its a compliment in a way but I contacted him twice to remove it, never did. Didn't push it any further but I wouldn't fault someone for getting the item removed.

[Cryptic]

just my input...flame away

I didn't intend on my answer to be a complete one. If I used someone's image and I was asked to remove it, I would promptly do so.

"Fair Use" gets tossed around a lot with internet imagery .

[Brandon W.]

if you cant handle having pictures of yours "stolen" off the internet..then dont post them!!

i think the internet is free game. i think making some case or whatever is a waste of time..

[pw_cc_runner]

just my imput...flame away

I 100% whole heartedly agree FLAME AWAY! :thumbsup (its a joke, flamer probe, I'm a flamer, literally, if you know what I mean, Nismodave thinks I am actually gay, but he's wrong!)

[Cryptic]

bad pun :goof

[xxsn0blindxx]

I complained to Ebay when another seller copied my pictures and description for his own auction and they responded pretty quickly and canceled his auction.

[pw_cc_runner]

believe it or not the seller just ended the auction but its still up :thumbsup

[GRAMPS SS]

I 100% whole heartedly agree FLAME AWAY! :thumbsup (its a joke, flamer probe, I'm a flamer, literally, if you know what I mean, Nismodave thinks I am actually gay, but he's wrong!)

you mean your not :sgay.....just kidding....:thumbsup

[Memphis]

if you cant handle having pictures of yours "stolen" off the internet..then dont post them!!

i think the internet is free game. i think making some case or whatever is a waste of time..

So if someone used images of a car you busted your ass on, made thousand's of dollars and you made nada nor even recognition, would it still be a waste of time? Would be well worth my time if it was my car...

[pw_cc_runner]

you mean your not :sgay.....just kidding....:thumbsup

oh yeah, I get a lot of gay jokes about that combo, its fun when someone comes up with a new one, but there a quite a few I've heard a billion times.

[GRAMPS SS]

Copyright law states that at the moment the image is in a TANGIBLE form, the person who took it is the sole OWNER of it's COPYRIGHT. IF YOU hand me your camera and I take a picture of YOU, you are legally NOT ALLOWED to print that picture without my CONSENT. Yes, you read that right, you do not own a picture of yourself taken with the camera that you own, on a medium that you payed for. The COPYRIGHT on that image is owned by the person who pressed the button. For maximum protection under the copyright law on an image (suing someone up to $150,000 per infringement),

[pw_cc_runner]

Copyright law states that at the moment the image is in a TANGIBLE form, the person who took it is the sole OWNER of it's COPYRIGHT. IF YOU hand me your camera and I take a picture of YOU, you are legally NOT ALLOWED to print that picture without my CONSENT. Yes, you read that right, you do not own a picture of yourself taken with the camera that you own, on a medium that you payed for. The COPYRIGHT on that image is owned by the person who pressed the button. For maximum protection under the copyright law on an image (suing someone up to $150,000 per infringement),

Is that what the guy wrote on PT?

[GRAMPS SS]

took it off a photography site....

[pw_cc_runner]

took it off a photography site....

ok then both of you are in the same place haha

[GRAMPS SS]

nah...i copied and pasted it....i can't lie...but he his 100% correct...

[jamest]

Your only option at this point is to have a cease and decist order from an attorney sent to ebay and the seller. I would recommend a copyright attorney as they have the best knowledge about that type of law. If you would like a recommendation look at professional photography organizations. They have dealt with crap like this for such a long time. More on a professional high dollar violations of copyright but regardless could give you some useful info. The APA is one group that could point you to the right people.

http://www.apanational.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3267

[pw_cc_runner]

nah...i copied and pasted it....i can't lie...but he his 100% correct...

I meant a person on Probetalk.com posted the exact same words

[GRAMPS SS]

WPPI as well Jamest

[jamest]

WPPI as well Jamest

True dat. There are more photography organizations that you shake a telephoto lens at.

[300pny]

If your that sensitive about it don't post pics of your car, drive your car or open oyur garage. Just keep the garage shut and stare at every once in a while.

[pw_cc_runner]

Disregarding 300pny pointless post...

The kit was re-listed this morning with the same pictures!

[pOrk]

All you have to do is contact ebay with the original photograph of the car and request it be removed from the sellers ebay auction because he doesn't have permission to use the image. Explain that you are the owner of the car as well as the photographer who took the picture and ebay will have no problems removing the image. Sometimes if you contact the seller they remove it no problem but from the sounds of it you already made that attempt.

When I post a photo online that I don't want people using, I water mark it.

[jamest]

Well, like mentioned above, your only option is a letter from the attorney or sell him the photo. Either way the seller is in the wrong and you have a case to litigate. Just depends how much money you want to drop on it.

[pw_cc_runner]

I reported it to ebay and it was down no more than 5 minutes later

[pOrk]

I reported it to ebay and it was down no more than 5 minutes later

See :)

[Cryptic]

I reported it to ebay and it was down no more than 5 minutes later

awesome!

[6forwardgears]

I really don't see what the big deal about this is either. :confused It's not like the body kit that he's selling was designed by you or something.

[Cryptic]

I really don't see what the big deal about this is either. :confused It's not like the body kit that he's selling was designed by you or something.

I disagree... The guy is making a buck off finish work that isn't his. If he wants to use his photo for advertising the product, he should pay for the rights to use it. At the very least give proper credits for photo/car owner.

[michelle]

When I bought the body kit for my car, the company gave me some money to use the pictures of my car in advertisements and on their website. They also used it on their own Ebay ads as well.

I think that was the proper way to go about it. The money wasn't much, but it was their way of getting permission to use the photographs.

[jamest]

I really don't see what the big deal about this is either. :confused It's not like the body kit that he's selling was designed by you or something.

The seller was making money off of his photograph without offering compensation or paying for usage of the photo.

Look at this way, you take a photo of your family pet. Nike says "Hey cute dog lets use it to advertise our latest running shoe." They go to your facebook, myspace whatever grab the photo and drop it into a multi million dollar ad campaign to sell millions of dollars of shoes. You never gave them permission nor do you ever get compensated for the use of your photo. Nike would be in violation of U.S. copyright laws. See the deal of this?

This isn't about a million dollars here but it is the principle of a cheap bastard trying to rip somebody else off of their work for his own gain.

[6forwardgears]

Hmm, I guess I see what you're saying. I still kind of see it from both sides though.

[Brandon W.]

So if someone used images of a car you busted your ass on, made thousand's of dollars and you made nada nor even recognition, would it still be a waste of time? Would be well worth my time if it was my car...

no i wouldnt care...they can use the image to sell there crap..because at the end of the day. ill be the OWNER of the car..and they can have only a picture of it.

[Silver03SRT]

no i wouldnt care...they can use the image to sell there crap..because at the end of the day. ill be the OWNER of the car..and they can have only a picture of it.

you forgot to add that at the end of the day they would have a few more dollars in their pocket than you would in yours.

[PB86MCSS]

Good to hear, I wouldn't like getting taken advantage of either. Its just rude and inconsiderate, not to mention lazy by a seller to do this. Not worth losing sleep sure, but its the principle of the matter. Glad some folks feel the same way.

[udlose98]

haha, i think thats awesome they got shut down, same thing happened to one of our members on camarov6.com, he didnt really take it too far tho.

[300pny]

WOW they could turn this thread into an episode of CSI.